(CBS) It was all seeming to turn back to feeling better, finally, NFL games deserving once again of the stage and the attention and all the shouting. The desultory slog over, the outcomes material. We set aside time, on purpose.

Two days and four games later, and we ended up with maybe two-and-a-half total quarters of compelling football, peaking on the final play of the half of the weekend’s last game, with little drama to deter us from end-of-winter-break errands.

Injured quarterbacks made three of the four contests worse, and the finale ended up being marred by a pandering storyline whipped up for the lowest common denominator of sports stupid, the latest application of the post hoc ergo propter hoc logical fallacy, this version with supposedly damning nautical optics.

The next round of matchups looks great. I’m going to convince myself it will all improve on the start, because it has to.